


No Eyes in Team

by lilacsigil



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Crime Fighting, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 23:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13041393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: Jessica and Matt are teaming up to fight ninjas. What a dumb idea.





	No Eyes in Team

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LJC](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJC/gifts).



> Please assume Matt is mysteriously back from his supposed death. 
> 
> Thanks to SA for the beta.

"You still look stupid," Jessica muttered. 

Matt settled his helmet in place. "Nice to know you're willing to insult the blind guy's fashion sense."

"Don't worry, I'll insult anyone."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that."

Jessica thought they were honestly the worst team-up possible. Seriously, she was glad he wasn't dead or whatever after the ninja fight, but his thing was sneaking and her thing was hitting bad guys until they fell over. Complete opposites. Oh well, maybe she'd be able to stop him getting his ass kicked quite as hard as usual. Unless he was into that shit. She had her suspicions. 

It was ninjas they were fighting again today, so they hadn't brought Luke. This was mostly because Luke kept trying to reform the ninjas and ask them what their moms would think of them. Jessica didn't give a shit as long as they went away and stopped messing with her and Matt's client. Mr Zamora was the unfortunate soul who had snapped up a former Hand warehouse at a police auction and was now being plagued by roaming ninja and blind Chinese cultists checking in on their old base and trying to reconstruct at least part of their drug empire. His security guards – who, admittedly, were mostly his out-of-work cousins – were totally overwhelmed so he'd turned to Jessica to try to work out what the hell was happening to his new warehouse. Jessica had asked Matt to check the sale details and well, here they were. 

"Who are the blind ones anyway? They're not ninjas." Jessica asked as she eyed up the barbed wire fence. "Friends of yours?"

"Definitely, we were all born in the same blind hospital and went to the same blind school together," Matt grumped. "No, they're victims of Madame Gao. She claimed they blinded themselves for her, but as far as I can find out, they're almost all regular disabled people she recruited from China and smuggled over here to process drugs for her. They don't speak English and are terrified of being deported back to China where they'll mostly be stuck begging or in an institution. At least they can make some money here and have food and a safe place to sleep. Had, I should say."

"So why do they keep coming here? Was it where they worked?"

"Yeah, and I guess they're hoping Gao will come back or someone else will take over. You can't exactly put 'illegal immigrant with experience in heroin processing' on your resume."

"Eh, I can think of a couple of places that would appreciate it," Jess shrugged, then crouched down and leapt clean over the fence, landing on her feet with a thud. Matt followed, far more gracefully, climbing a nearby building then vaulting over the barbed wire to land almost silently, despite his heavy boots. "Goddamn show-off," Jess said. 

They moved closer to Mr Zamora's warehouse, which seemed quiet to Jess, but Matt indicated there were at least a dozen people inside. 

"They don't know we're here," he whispered. "I'll go in through the roof, you cover the side door. The main doors haven't been opened in weeks, they won't be going that way."

"Sure thing. Try not to get killed."

Matt grinned, his teeth gleaming white in the darkness, and disappeared. Jess liked him much better when there was a fight: he was such a sadsack the rest of the time. And he hardly even drank anymore. 

Jess's phone buzzed. "Shit!" It was a text from Danny, or Fist Boy as she had him listed. 

_u want dinner? 1 hour colleen's place_

She shoved the phone back in her pocket, but she had every intention of making that dinner. They could compare ninja information and she could eat on Danny's dime and take leftovers home for Malcolm. She'd invite him, but as it turned out, Malcolm genuinely liked day-old takeout, not just when he was strung out and desperate. 

_if u get Korean don't forget that soju shit I like_

Important messages done, she switched off the phone. A moment later, she heard a scream and a thump. Matt must be doing his Daredevil thing in there. 

Moments later, a man threw open the door Jessica was guarding. She stuck her arm out across the doorway, and he ran straight into it, knocking himself out. The next one was tall and only caught her arm in the chest, so she had to follow up with a stomach punch that sent him staggering back into the warehouse. The third was one of Gao's blind cultists so Jessica simply spun him around and shoved him back inside. She felt a bit guilty about messing with blind people – other than Matt, obviously – but whatever, don't be in a drug cult. 

It took a while for an actual fighter to emerge, a compact black guy who ducked under Jessica's arm and quickly turned to kick her in the back of the knee. 

"What the hell?" she complained as she stumbled, and grabbed him by his cheap-ass leather jacket. He tried to flip her forward over his shoulder but she'd seen that trick before, and yanked him backwards before throwing him into the side of the warehouse with a loud crash. Things seemed to be quietening down inside, so she grabbed the ninja dude by the leg and dragged him inside with her. 

The warehouse was largely empty except for a battered black SUV with flat tyres which smelled like it had been lived in. A whole bunch of blind people were over in one corner, talking nervously among themselves. Jessica might not know Chinese but she did know scared. A couple of ninjas, one still in the actual red Hand uniform, were laid out on the floor, and Matt had a young Chinese guy in an expensive suit and dark sunglasses by the throat. 

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. 

Suit man kept his hands up and was shouting something in what Jessica presumed to be Chinese. 

"We can't understand him, let's just shoot him," Jess told Matt, and watched suit man cringe in fear. 

"No, no, I speak English, okay, don't shoot me?"

"Yeah, thought so. You want to keep hanging onto him, Daredevil?"

Matt nodded. 

The Chinese guy's voice got even whinier. "I'm trying to help everyone else that Madame Gao left behind, okay?"

"Who are you, and what kind of help, exactly?"

"I'm Alex Lu and I was a liaison for Madame Gao. I organised her workers and her transport teams. I went to college before I lost my sight, so I was desperate for a good job and Madame Gao offered me one."

"That's what all the dealers say," Jessica snapped.

"I've seen you dealing on the street," Matt growled in full Batman voice. 

"It was all Gao's stuff, okay! I'm not a gang leader or anything. But I knew some of the smugglers, and they knew places that needed workers, so I started bringing everyone here."

"So what are they going to be doing?"

"Nothing illegal!" 

Matt gave him a hard shake. 

"Okay, maybe illegal but not drugs. It's seafood packing, okay? They don't need sight to do it, Americans don't want the job. They'll have somewhere to live and get paid."

Matt let him fall on the ground. "Now you're telling the truth."

"Cool, how much longer are you going to be taking up space here?" Jessica asked, picking Alex up off the ground.

"Uh, pick-up is tomorrow night."

"Fine, we leave you alone until then, you stop hanging around here. Someone new owns this place now. And no mystic ninja shit."

"Oh, no, ma'am, I'm not a ninja or anything."

Before Jessica even noticed anyone moving, Matt was across the room and leaping on the ninja Jessica had punched back into the warehouse. He dodged and Matt had to roll to avoid crashing into the floor. A woman over with the blind people leapt up, and Jessica cursed herself for not having checked them properly, because that woman could definitely see well enough to throw stupid ninja darts right at Matt. 

Matt grabbed a piece of tin off the floor to use as a shield and ran towards the woman. 

"Don't get hit!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

"No shit!" Jessica yelled back, and shoved Alex behind the damaged SUV. "Stay there or I'll come after you."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Matt was occupied by the dart-throwing chick, so Jessica headed for the guy she had already punched once. He took one look at her and ran – unfortunately, he ran straight towards Matt. 

"Behind you!" Jessica yelled, but Matt must have already been alert, because he suddenly dropped flat to the ground. Three darts flew over him and thunked into the chest of the ninja running up behind him. 

Dart-throwing chick cursed – that was Spanish, Jessica knew that one! – and pulled a knife, but Matt slammed her with the sheet of tin and she hit the floor. The blind people grabbed at Matt, who had got too close to them, trying to hold him down. Matt must have felt much more squeamish about hurting them than Jessica had, because instead of throwing them off he tried to extract himself without hurting anyone. 

Jessica thought Matt would probably freak out if she started breaking fingers, so instead she stomped back to the SUV. "Alex Lu! Tell them to back off!" She grabbed his arm and held behind his back, not hard enough to hurt but enough to threaten. "And if you want to keep this arm, don't mess around."

"No problem! I told you, I'm not a ninja!" He yelled something in Chinese, and the group let Matt go. 

"Those Hand ninja are a real hassle," Alex told Jessica. "They interrogate us to find out when Madame Gao is coming back for them, but I don't think she's in the city, or even the US. I haven't heard anything from her. Not that the Hand believe me."

"We'll get rid of these ones for you," Matt told him, suddenly standing right beside Jessica. Creepy. "And tomorrow night we'll make sure no-one bothers you during your pickup. Here." He shoved some money into Alex's hand. "Make sure everyone gets something to eat. I'll know if you don't."

"Sure thing," Alex said. 

"Help me with these?" Matt asked Jessica, not quite in full Batman voice mode. 

She tucked one ninja under each arm, awkwardly and Matt carried the third guy who Jessica had thrown into the wall. 

"So what are we doing with three unconscious ninjas, Daredevil?" 

Matt winced at the tone Jessica always used for that name, but headed towards an array of storage units. "We're locking them up for Iron Fist. I think he's doing ninja rehab, sending them home, deprogramming them, that kind of thing. And on that topic, why are you handing the rest of them over to a people smuggler? We had to put up a united front in there, but I'm arguing now."

Jessica dumped her two ninjas in a storage locker. Being left here for Danny was obviously a frequent occurrence, since there was a bucket toilet, plenty of bottled water, and a futon. Matt set his ninja down more carefully, and tilted his head, doing that super-listening thing close to the three unconscious bodies. It always made Jessica want to clap her hands to scare the shit out of him, but she was trying not to be such a douche these days. Still, something about Matt's earnestness always made her want to stir him up. 

"They'll be fine," Matt told her, then they left the locker and Matt pulled down the roller door and locked it with the keypad. "No serious injuries."

"Yeah, good, whatever. Ninja shit."

"So, the people smuggling?" 

Jessica shrugged, extra hard so that Matt knew she was doing it. "It's keeping everyone happy, isn't it? They want to stay in America and work. Gao's dumped them, but Alex Lu is going to be much easier to track than Gao."

"If Iron Fist –"

"Fuck Danny and fuck his money. You know he'll put them up in some penthouse or whatever and give them a million bucks and they'll send it all back to their families and be back at square one."

"Okay, even I can't argue with that."

"No shit, Murdock."

"Please don't use my name while I'm wearing the mask."

Jessica rolled her eyes, hoping he could hear that. "Anyway, as far as I can tell, the more you single someone out for special treatment, the more things suck for them. They're going to be packing seafood, you'll be able to smell that across three goddamn states. And since you promised to provide security, we'll get a good look at the people smugglers too. Look. Smell. Whatever."

"Look is fine," Matt said, with an annoying smirk. 

"Oh, shut up, Special Needs. Danny's getting everyone dinner at Colleen's place, meet you there."

"Nice working with you!" Matt called after her as she stomped off towards the fence. She replied with a middle finger in his general direction. 

Later, though, with a good soju buzz going and her stomach full of Korean food, she sat staring vaguely at the hole in her sock – for Colleen she'd take off her boots – while Luke talked about tracking down two of Sowande's henchmen who were trying to set up their own body disposal service. There was a box of kim chi and pork stir fry by her side to take back to Malcolm, and Luke's belly laugh overpowered Danny's giggle and Claire's sarcastic comments. Matt was dressed as a lawyer again, for some reason, tutting at Colleen stealing dumplings from Misty's soup, and Jessica caught herself thinking that this wasn't all bad. Not all bad, really.


End file.
